A new awards scheme,supported by Lancashire Life, is designed to shine a light on our successful family businesses
An exciting new awards ceremony which celebrates Lancashire family businesses is to be held in the county for the first time next year.
The Lancashire Family Business Awards, supported by Lancashire Life, will take place at the Mercure Blackburn Dunkenhalgh Hotel, Accrington on September 20 2019.
Family businesses from a wide range of sectors will be able to enter when applications open in April next year.
The awards have been established by the creators of the nationally trending Cumbria Family Business Awards – Janett Walker and Sophia Newton of PR and Events company Flock, and Sue Howorth founder of The Family Business Network Ltd.
The three Windermere based businesswomen spoke about why they chose Lancashire as the next county to benefit from this successful awards programme
Janett said: ‘Each year we’ve had Lancashire businesses asking if they could enter the Cumbrian awards so it was clear there was an appetite for it. We’ve just been waiting for the right time, media partner and venue and we are delighted to have found them all.’
Sue, who recently expanded The Family Business Network into Lancashire added: ‘Family businesses contribute so much to the North West and with the network now having a presence there it’s already apparent there is a real sense of pride among local family businesses. The awards are an incredible way to celebrate the achievements of family businesses.’
Sophia added: ‘Lancashire has real heritage and is home to family businesses both large and small, including many well-known long-established businesses and younger family firms too. They will all be welcome to apply – young or old, large or small…we love them all! We pride ourselves on doing things unconventionally, we can’t wait for people to see what we have in store for the brilliant family businesses of Lancashire.’
The successful awards format is now in its third year in Cumbria and has been praised not only for the warm and magical ceremony, its nationally trending social media campaigns and strong press coverage itself but also for putting regional family businesses on a national stage. This is thanks to the founders’ links with Family Business United whereby winners of the regional family business awards automatically become finalists in the national Family Business of the Year Awards, taking place at The Mayfair in London. So far, there have been eleven Cumbrian national winners, and the hope is for similar successes from Lancashire.
The Cumbrian events have been hosted by the Hairy Bikers, but the organisers are looking to Lancashire for inspiration for their celebrity presenters for the Lancashire Family Business Awards 2019.
The host, expert panel of judges and categories will be announced in the coming months. Those looking for more information in the meantime should contact team@lancashirefamilybusinessawards.co.uk #LFBA2019
As media partners, Lancashire Life will be keeping you up to date with all the latest news from the awards.
